No Academic LORs for IR/Public Policy MA - am I screwed?

[jndaven]

I graduated from a large private university three years ago and while I did well there (3.5 GPA) most of my classes were huge and I don't think anyone will remember me well enough to write me a recommendation letter three years later...I want to apply to masters programs in IR and Public Policy at the usual suspects: HKS, U Chicago, Colombia, etc. Am I screwed if I don't have a single academic recommendation? I took math classes at community college last spring, but I can't imagine a letter from there would help me either!

[pea-jay]

Do you have any equivalent work/volunteer experience? I'm apply for Public policy programs (focused more on urban and management issues though) and I'm more than 10 years removed from my undergrad and a few relevant grad classes as not to make an academic recommendation possible for me. In my case, my fall back position are LORs from current and former supervisors as well as a politician I was a strategist/asst campaign manager for last election cycle. I'm hoping this will be sufficient to make up for no academic references.

[greendiplomat]

I graduated from a large private university three years ago and while I did well there (3.5 GPA) most of my classes were huge and I don't think anyone will remember me well enough to write me a recommendation letter three years later...I want to apply to masters programs in IR and Public Policy at the usual suspects: HKS, U Chicago, Colombia, etc. Am I screwed if I don't have a single academic recommendation? I took math classes at community college last spring, but I can't imagine a letter from there would help me either!

While I think it would be nice to have at least 1 academic LOR, I don't think it's the end of the world (especially considering that these are largely professional programs). If you're worried, you might want to look for a professional reference that could reflect on your academic capabilities. Any work experience that was, for example, very research-based?

[riz1]

While few schools require at least one academic LoR, most *highly recommend* it. Quoted from Fletcher: "We suggest that at least one letter come from a faculty member, academic dean, or an advisor familiar with your academic performance."

And from SIPA: "While not a requirement, we prefer that one letter be from a member of academia."

[green_tea09]

If you took any courses in undergrad that related to what you will be studying in grad school, you might want to get in touch with the professor and ask him/her if they might be able to write a letter of rec for you. You could send the prof one or two papers you wrote for their class so and ask that they comment on your research/writing skills. If you could meet with the prof in person during their office hours and discuss your situation, I think that might help you get a more personal letter of reference from a prof who you might not have had a close connection to during undergrad.

[channing88]

i agree with everyone else- i think you have to have at least one academic reference. you should try contacting your old professors- it doesn't hurt to ask them, right? and maybe you could send them some samples of your work and your resume so they'll have a better idea of what kind of student/person you are. might help persuade them to write for you.

[pea-jay]

i agree with everyone else- i think you have to have at least one academic reference. you should try contacting your old professors- it doesn't hurt to ask them, right? and maybe you could send them some samples of your work and your resume so they'll have a better idea of what kind of student/person you are. might help persuade them to write for you.

Respectfully disagree. There comes a point where you just are too far removed from your UG to have an academic ref worth anything. I'm 13 1/2 years past my UG years where many of my profs have transferred/retired/died and not available for a LOR. Even being 10 yrs removed from a few grad classes is too long. At that point your SOP, work experience and supervisor's LORs are more important. Most of the schools I am applying to are perfectly fine with that. At 3.5 years past your UG, I would at least try to contact before giving up though.

[linden]

This is not an application killer. I got into HKS and was wait-listed by WWS last year without any academic LORs. Most applications are bound to have a weak spot; if this is yours, it's not the end for you. Good luck!

[Cornell07]

This is not an application killer. I got into HKS and was wait-listed by WWS last year without any academic LORs. Most applications are bound to have a weak spot; if this is yours, it's not the end for you. Good luck!

I concur. If you've been out a significantly long time, your Academic LORs mean almost nothing for most of these programs -- now, a more academically oriented school like Yale might have an issue, of course, but we are far more the exception than the rule.

[carpecc]

If you took any courses in undergrad that related to what you will be studying in grad school, you might want to get in touch with the professor and ask him/her if they might be able to write a letter of rec for you. You could send the prof one or two papers you wrote for their class so and ask that they comment on your research/writing skills. If you could meet with the prof in person during their office hours and discuss your situation, I think that might help you get a more personal letter of reference from a prof who you might not have had a close connection to during undergrad.

I agree with Green_Tea. Even though you had big classes, you're profs will still be able to write for you. It's there job, they've got tons of form letters they use and they've no doubt written recs for students they can't remember.

The trick is to approach them the right way. Give them as much information about yourself as possible without going overload. Tell them what you plan to study, what classes you took with them, what you made in those classes, what kind of impact (if any, don't bullshit) the class had on you and be really polite about it. Send them a CV, a draft personal statement and anything else (the best paper you did in their class, transcripts) that might aid them. They might not remember your name, but might remember really digging one of the papers you wrote, or they might just be impressed with your achievements since graduation. If they're are hard-ass grader and they gave you an A, then they can say in their letter, without knowing you personally, that you're top shelf stuff.

If you're worried about it being week, ask specifically how confident they would feel giving you a strong rec. Let them know they can level with you. You could even offer to draft the letter for them to ensure it is not too generic.

Case in point, I'm eight years out of school and am getting a rec from a professor in one of my advanced classes from undergrad. I wrote her a nice long email months ago, gave some context she might remember me by, told her what I'd been up to, what I was applying for and asked politely for a recommendation. She remembered me, thought my story since college was sweet and enthusiastically offered to write a letter for me.

I think I only made a B in her class and it's completely unrelated to what I want to study, but considering the difficulty of the class (400 level neuroscience course) and the positive feedback I got from her, I picked her as my academic rec. I'm hoping she'll make the admissions confident I can hand their course load.

I gave her as much supporting docs as possible and provided her (as with all my recommenders) with an easy table outlining what they need to do by when.

Granted I went to a small liberal arts school where it's easy to remember people but still, eight years is a long time.

You also want to give them plenty of advanced notice... so get on it!

[riz1]

At the end of the day, you're neither 8 nor 13 years out of undergrad. Three years ago is recent, and my feeling is that you should use some of the tips presented here on how to approach professors from days of yore.

However, be careful in how you balance this decision: you are being recommended by your schools to include an academic LoR, but you don't want to include one just for the sake of meeting a quota, especially if it's from a professor who wouldn't strengthen your application. Be sure you find that sweet spot between getting an academic recommendation (because if you don't, it may not reflect well since you're recently out of university) and presenting your candidacy most favorably.

With all that said, every applicant has a different story to tell, and if your story includes three brilliant recommendations from non-academics, then do that. Be sure to carefully craft your story in your SoP, in order to help the adcomm understand why your circumstances are so unique.

Best of luck!

[jndaven]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice. I did contact one of my professors, and he remembered me better than I thought and wrote one of my recs. Now I just have to think of an appropriate thank you gift to go with the card!